FROM THE ROAD: IOWA

We are zooming down the interstate to the Des Moines aiport. We just had breaktast with at the Cafe Diem in Ames, Iowa with the Story County Dems. It has been a quick - but fun - trip to Iowa. Yesterday we spent the day in Mason City. Mason City is not only the home of the grandmother and aunt of the Dean Campaign's Stephanie Schriock (Stephanie gets big points for getting two people to show up at an event!), but it is also the home of Meredith Wilson, the composer of the Music Man. The Meredith Wilson museum is located right across for the library where we had a meeting. I slipped out of the meeting and took a quick swing through the museum. If you liked the movie, you'll like the museum. We also visited a local favorite spot, Dairy Queen, where we had lunch/dinner. Our order: a blizzard, two twist cones, and a milk shake. This was our daily allowance of dairy on the food pyramid!

5/23/2003

DEAN STATEMENT ON LATEST BUSH TAX CUTS

Howard Dean released the following statement today in regard to President Bush’s latest round of tax cuts.

"This new round of tax cuts is just another reminder that not only are Republicans irresponsible with taxpayer money, they're irresponsible with the truth of what they have done," said former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.

"The President's latest reckless tax cuts should come with a warning label like that on a rearview mirror: 'CAUTION - THE SIZE OF THIS TAX CUT IS MUCH LARGER THAN IT APPEARS.'

"The gimmicks and book-keeping contortions contained in this bill are breathtaking in their scope and dishonesty.

"This President and the Republicans in Congress continue to redirect scarce resources to the top rungs of the economic ladder and away from the urgent needs of our citizens - from health care and prescription drugs, to better schools and assistance for the unemployed."

WIRED ON DEAN TV

With all the entertainment options available on broadband Internet, watching Vermont Gov. Howard Dean discuss health care and the economy for an hour might not seem like the most exciting use of bandwidth.

But for those who think otherwise, strategists overseeing Dean's long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination are hoping their all-video site -- Howard Dean TV -- will provide just the fix political news junkies crave.

TNR: DEAN.COM

Ryan Lizza over at The New Republic writes about the Dean presence in the blogosphere in one of the first pieces we've seen to put it all together:

Other innovations—wireless communications, HowardDean.tv (a website that runs streaming video of Dean speeches and events), a network of rapid-response bloggers—have followed, and [Campaign Manager Joe] Trippi is now doing more with the Internet than any other presidential campaign.

And, of course, this humble little blog gets a mention.

Aides to some of the other 2004 Democratic candidates regard Trippi, who was born in Silicon Valley and has spent the last few years working for high-tech companies, as a bit of an eccentric who wastes precious campaign time e-mailing obscure bloggers and hanging out with political oddballs at the monthly Dean Meetups. "Some of these Meetup events look like the bar scene from Star Wars," says an adviser to one Dean rival.

Tha bar scene in Star Wars? Will they never learn? They're called voters.

One of the most important online vehicles for the Dean campaign is blogs. Just as President Bush has wooed conservative talk-show hosts, holding a special day for them at the White House, Dean is the first candidate to treat relatively unknown bloggers as a critical opinion-making constituency.

Which, of course, bloggers are.

Anyone who writes critically about Dean can expect his copy to be chewed up by this army of zealous Dean Internet scribes. When I wrote a piece recently that contained a few paragraphs about Dean, a member of the Dean2004 blog team filed an almost 2,000-word entry slicing my article up into sections with labels such as "true," "false," "inadvertently true," and "foolish."

Everyone's a critic, we know. Nonetheless, the Lizza article is a good read, with this conclusion by Trippi (already picked up by Atrios,who is fast fast fast):

"In the way TV changed politics and took it away from the grassroots," [Trippi] says with fervor, "the Internet is going to give it back."

5/22/2003

FROM THE ROAD: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

We are sitting in the Northwest Airlines terminal at the San Francisco airport. We are waiting for our 12:45am flight to Minneapolis where we make a connection to Des Moines. Gov. Dean is on the phone with the Mike Webb radio show in Seattle, Washington. We just came from a reception in San Francisco. There must have been over 250 people there. The person who introduced the Gov. asked how many in the crowd had not made up their mind yet on who they were supporting for President. About 30 people raised their hands. The Gov. took the microphone and had the crowd roaring! If he did not swing all 30 of the undediced voters, he certainly came close. I stood behind the Gov. and it was amazing to watch the crowd get more and more excited as the Gov. spoke.

After being in the screaming crowd, it is strangely quiet here in the airport. The Gov. is now sitting next to me writing thank you notes as we eagerly wait to take yet another red-eye to Iowa.

DEAN FOR AMERICA ANNOUNCES NEW STAFF AND ADVISORS

The Dean for America campaign today announced the addition of several key staff members and advisors.

“I am delighted that talented people of this caliber have agreed to join our campaign,” said Howard Dean.

“These men and women add extraordinary talent and depth to our operation and begin to round out our senior staff,” said campaign manager Joe Trippi. “We will be making additional staff announcements in the near future.”

The campaign's Policy Director will be Jeremy Ben-Ami, Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor to President Bill Clinton from 1994-1996, as well as Chief of Staff to the Domestic Policy Council from 1993 to 1996. Ben-Ami served recently as Deputy Campaign Manager for Mark Green in his race for Mayor of New York and as Green’s Policy Director in the Public Advocate's office. He has worked for two Mayors of New York on housing and homeless policy. He also founded and ran a strategic communications consulting firm in Israel.

Also joining the campaign's staff as Senior Policy Advisor is Ronald Weich, formerly Chief Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Labor and Human Resources Committee, and later on the Senate Judiciary Committee. A former New York City prosecutor, Weich now practices law in Washington DC at the firm of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP.

Ben-Ami and Weich will be setting up a policy council to advise Governor Dean on policy issues that will help shape new initiatives and policy direction for the growing campaign. Helping to assemble this policy council and serving as senior advisors to the campaign will be Maria Echaveste and Christopher Edley, Jr., both senior White House officials in the Clinton administration.

Maria Echaveste was Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff in the second Clinton White House. The highest ranking Latino ever to serve in the White House, she provided both political and policy advice to the President on a wide range of economic and social issues, as well as several foreign policy and national security matters. Prior to the White House, she was Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the Labor Department. Echaveste is currently an attorney and consultant in Washington DC.

Chris Edley Jr. is a Professor at Harvard Law School and founding co-Director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard. Edley served as Senior Counsel to President Clinton and Senior Advisor for the Race Initiative. Prior to that, as Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget, his portfolio included five cabinet departments and over 40 independent agencies. Edley was national issues director in the 1987-88 Dukakis presidential campaign, and Assistant Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Carter.

Tricia Enright, who most recently served as Press Secretary for Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and worked as Deputy Communications Director on Gore/Lieberman 2000, will become the Dean campaign's Communications Director. She has also previously served as the Senior Advisor and Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton Administration.

Two Deputy Campaign Managers, Bob Rogan and Tom McMahon, have also joined the staff. Rogan most recently served as Vice President of Public Affairs for Central Vermont Public Service. From 1994-1998, he worked as Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Dean, and prior to that, he served in various positions for U.S. Senator and Florida Governor Lawton Chiles. Rogan also previously worked as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Bob Graham.

Tom McMahon worked in the Clinton Administration between 1993-1999. He served as the Deputy Director of Advance in the White House, and as a public affairs specialist at the Department of Defense. A regional field director in Missouri for Clinton/Gore 1992, McMahon was also involved with the Clinton and Gore campaigns of 1996 and 2000.

The campaign's Finance Director is Stephanie Schriock, the former Director of Campaign Assistance at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. She has also served as the Southern regional finance director at the DSCC, and as the finance director of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

DEAN RAISES $1M VIA INTERNET

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean has raised $1 million without serving hors d'oeuvres, hitting the phones or mailing thousands of appeals. The money has come through the Internet, a possible sign of fund-raising trends to come.

The former Vermont governor and self-described underdog has used the Internet to complement traditional fund-raising techniques, collecting contributions through his Web site and e-mail at little cost to his campaign.

Dean hit the $1 million mark in Internet fund raising last week, becoming the first 2004 presidential hopeful to announce he has done so. Dean supporters also are using the Internet to organize volunteers across the country.

MSNBC: THE HOWARD DEAN CHANNEL

Now Dean has taken another interesting high tech step by launching what is essentially his own Web-based television channel www.howarddean.tv. By installing a small piece of software, your computer is turned into something of an Internet-based Tivo, constantly downloading video in the background, via your high speed Internet connection. Thus, when you go to the howarddean.tv page, there is a series of video programs available for immediate viewing — full screen at better than VHS quality, with no waiting for streaming to start. The current fare at Dean’s channel includes full-length versions of his recent speeches on health care, along with a long campaign trailer. The campaign promises to continually update the channel as new Dean video becomes available.

Clearly, this isn’t going to make the average citizen’s bookmark list, but it’s a very smart way to make sure that Dean supporters are entirely up on the latest video images and coverage of their candidate. And the Web is an increasingly important piece of the political machine.

DEAN INTERVIEW AT TRUTHOUT

William Rivers Pitt has an interview with the Governor (conducted yesterday) over at Truthout.org. Some excerpts:

People in my party fundamentally misunderstand why this President is popular. The reason he is popular has absolutely nothing to do with the issues. It has to do with the fact that people think he is a leader. The way to deal with a leader is to be another leader, and to be strong in your views and present the American people with a choice. Not to take half of his policies and vote for them, and then say, "Well, I voted for half of the policies, but I thought he was a little wrong on this one." That's not going to win us this election.

For me, when the Cumulus Corporation, which owns a lot of radio stations, kicked the Dixie Chicks off their networks – a couple hundred radio stations – I realized that media corporations have too much power. What they were doing was using a public resource, i.e. the airwaves, and removing the ability to view and represent both sides of an issue.

When you have that kind of power, you have too much power. I believe we need to re-regulate the media, go back to limiting the number of stations that can be controlled in one particular area, so we can be sure that the American people get moderate, conservative and liberal points of view.

[On the Patriot Act] First of all, I would remove the parts of the Patriot Act that are clearly unconstitutional. It can't be constitutional to hold an American citizen without access to a lawyer. Secondly, it can't be constitutional for the FBI to be able to go through your files at the library or the local video store, to see what you've taken out in the last week, without a warrant. The other thing I would do is appoint judges that would uphold the constitution. This President is appointing people from the far-right Federalist Society who have a different view of the constitution than most Americans. I hate to agree with anything Dick Nixon said, but Dick Nixon used to say that he wanted strict constructionists for the bench. This President is appointing right-wing judicial activists. We need strict constructionists that believe in the constitution and will uphold it as written.

DEAN: What environmental policy? He has none. It's appalling. Essentially what he's done is try to undo most of the environmental policy in the last 50 years. Drilling in the national parks is essentially his solution to the energy dilemma. Gutting the Clean Air Act and daring to call it Clear Skies. Opening wilderness to more logging under the guise of Healthy Forests. He's even threatening our national monuments. The assaults are sweeping. He has the worst environmental record of any president since before Theodore Roosevelt. You can't rely on this president's word on any domestic agendas -- least of all environmental issues.

GRIST: Will your environmental agenda be central to your campaign?

DEAN: Yes, it will be central because my campaign is about a long-range vision for the country and you can't have a serious long-range vision for the country if you don't talk about the environment. Everything that they do in the Bush administration is about results a year from now or two years from now. There's very little discussion of what's going to happen 10 or 20 years from now, when we will see the consequences of many of Bush's current environmental policies. The way he runs the country's finances shows the same myopia -- these enormous deficits as far as the eye can see. All he wants to do is make it through 2008.

FORWARD: OP-ED BY HOWARD DEAN ON HEALTH CARE

A new op-ed, written by Howard Dean and addressing the Governor's health care plan, appears in today's edition of Forward. An excerpt:

In the richest, most advanced country in the world in the 21st century, it's simply wrong for sick children to go without seeing a doctor because their parents can't afford it. It's wrong for a woman to find out she has late-stage breast cancer, because she couldn't afford a mammogram. It's wrong for seniors to have to choose between prescriptions they need and putting food on the table. The time has come to make healthcare for all Americans a reality....

A just-released Congressional Budget Office study shows that nearly 60 million Americans lack health insurance at some point during the year. The number of uninsured is soaring at the rate of nearly 1 million people every year. More than 40% of uninsured adults postponed seeking medical care last year alone. At a time when insurance costs paid by working families are increasing exponentially, and 1,300 babies are born in this country without health insurance every day, there is no excuse for President Bush's plan to slash funding for Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $2.5 billion....

With the plan I've put forth to the American people, we'll organize a system nearly identical to the one federal workers and members of Congress enjoy. And we'll enable all employers with less than 50 workers to join it at rates lower than are currently available to these companies — provided they insure their work force. I'll also offer employers a deal: The federal government will pick up 70% of COBRA premiums for employees transitioning out of their jobs, but we'll expect employers to pay the cost of extending coverage for an additional two months. These two months are often the difference between workers finding the health coverage they need, or joining the ranks of the uninsured.

Finally, to ensure that the maximum number of American men, women and children have access to healthcare, we must address corporate responsibility. There are many corporations that could provide healthcare to their employees but choose not to. The final element of this plan is a clear, strong message to corporate America that providing health coverage is fundamental to being a good corporate citizen. I look at business tax deductions as part of a compact between American taxpayers and corporate America. We give businesses certain benefits, and expect them to live up to certain responsibilities.

5/21/2003

FROM THE ROAD: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

It's another east coast to west coast day. Wake up in Alexandria, Virginia. Lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dinner in Los Angeles, California. I actually dared to look out the window when we flew from Salt Lake to Los Angeles (I'm not the best flyer) and was I glad I did. It was a spectacular view. Tonight we stay in Los Angeles and fly to San Jose in the morning. We're meeting activists and raising money! Tomorrow night it's another dreaded red eye flight to Iowa. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an aisle seat!

WE WANT DEAN

HEAR IT FROM SLATE

William Saletan over at Slate reviews Governor Dean's performance at the "Hear it from the Heartland" forum in Iowa this past weekend. An excerpt of his assessment:
1. [Dean said] Bush "is not popular because of his policies, because most Americans don't agree with his policies. … The reason people like George Bush is they think he's a leader. They think that he says what he means in unambiguous terms. And the way to beat him is not to try to be like him [on the issues]. The way to beat him is to unambiguously state our Democratic Party agenda, because if you put a Democratic agenda next to a Republican agenda, the Democratic agenda's going to win every time."

There's a good case to be made for this theory. Polls show Bush is substantially more popular than most of his policies are. Furthermore, Dean would be an excellent nominee to test the theory. He has a Reagan-esque, strong-backboned appeal....

5. [Dean said,] "My health insurance plan … is built on the existing system. It's not that the existing system is so great; it's just that I'm tired of trying to get the reforms through Congress and then have the Democrats fight among each other about how to do it, and then the Republican special interests come in and kill the whole thing. So what I want to do is just build on the existing system, get everybody insured first, and then we can have a big fight as to how to change the system."

This is the clearest statement I've heard yet from Dean as to why his plan is better than the others. The health-care issue is enormously complicated and will become more so as other candidates pile their plans on top of Dean's, Dick Gephardt's, and John Kerry's. Nobody's going to believe that one of these plans is better than all the others in every respect. Each candidate needs to convey in a simple way the standard by which his proposal is the best. Dean has now done so, in a way that enhances his credibility by conceding which virtues his plan compromises to achieve its object. Let's see whether Gephardt, Kerry, and the rest can follow suit.

DEAN AT NUMBER 2 IN KOS CATTLE CALL

Daily Kos has his weekly Cattle Call out, and Dean is at #2. Kos writes:

George Bush called Adam Clymer a "major league a--hole", and while the press expressed predictable outrage, the public loved him for it. I wouldn't sweat some of Dean's "misstatements" -- it seems his Meet Up numbers always spike after one of those.

Why? Because it spurs media attention, and his campaign is in "name ID" mode. Once people are aware he exists, they take a closer look. And he seems to be doing really well amongst those who look.

For that reason, both Kerry and the DLC miscalculated horribly by attacking Dean. They took a candidate without a cause post-Iraq, and reinvigorated him beyond all expectations. Rather than ignore and marginalize, they elevated Dean to "threat number one" and he's subsequently reaping all the benefits.

One more thing -- remember that silly notion that helped get Bush elected -- "who would you rather have a beer with, Bush or Gore?" Dean wins the "Beer Primary".

DEAN STATEMENT ON CHRISTIE WHITMAN'S DEPARTURE FROM EPA; LAST VOICE OF MODERATION GONE FROM ADMINISTRATION

Howard Dean today commented on the resignation of Christie Whitman from the Environmental Protection Agency and spoke out against the Bush Administration’s disastrous environmental record.

“Administrator Whitman was one of the few voices of moderation in the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, her voice was muted by the Bush-Cheney obsession with rewarding their friends in the oil industry by rolling back decades of bipartisan progress on protecting our environment.”

Upon taking office, President Bush swiftly broke his promise to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide – a major contributor to global warming. The Bush Administration has repeatedly worked to weaken clean air, clean water, and other environmental laws; slashed environmental enforcement efforts; and pushed for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other environmentally sensitive areas.

Dean stated that, “The burden is on the President to show the nation that he cares about the environment more than he cares about helping his political friends in the oil and gas industries.”

MEETUP SURPASSES 25,000 MEMBERS

QUICKTIME NOW AVAILABLE ON HOWARD DEAN TV

QuickTime versions of the content available from Howard Dean TV is now available online.

There have been some questions about Howard Dean TV. It's a feature that is evolving.

The first component of Howard Dean TV addresses the desire among supporters for television-quality video of Howard Dean. It is different from streaming media.

Howard Dean TV is presently a broadband service. Through Wavexpress and using TVTonic technology (see website, above, for more information), users can download full-screen, DVD-quality programming to their computers. Howard Dean TV will update automatically. Simply by leaving their computers running and hooked up to a cable or DSL connection, new video is automatically delivered to users’ local drives.

Users now can view a speech or other content on demand. Because the file is stored on their hard drive, they can watch the video while on the go; they can also bring their laptops to Dean Meetups or other public events to share the video with other supporters who may not have broadband access.

Because the video is of the highest quality, “in a full-screen format with VCR-like controls,” the programming can be played from a laptop in a public setting (such as a Dean Meetup). Other formats require a connection to the Internet to be established at the time of playback (Real Player or Windows Media) or offer only small display sizes (QuickTime).

The Dean campaign is working to allow dial-up users to watch Howard Dean on streaming video. Since this need is presently being met through multiple volunteer and professional sources (such as C-Span.org), our first step has been to address the need that hasn’t been met—TV-quality video of Howard Dean, distributed free via the Internet. (Dial up users can now download the QuickTime formats.)

Thanks for your support, and if you have broadband access, please download Howard Dean TV and share the video with friends and other supporters.

"This is a good day for Americans who are struggling to pay for their needed prescriptions. Having worked very hard in support of Maine’s effort, I am very pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling," Dean said. During Dean’s tenure as Governor, his office worked closely with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office in encouraging other states to sign an Amicus brief supporting Maine.

Dean has long been a leader in controlling pharmaceutical costs. At a time when Congress has failed to deliver any meaningful cost containment legislation, it has fallen to Governors to look for solutions to the problem of skyrocketing pharmaceutical costs. Vermont, under Dean’s leadership, received the first federal waiver for a program designed to secure manufacturer rebates to fund a discounted drug program for residents who do not normally qualify for Medicaid. Subsequently, Vermont and Maine worked closely together to develop programs to reduce pharmaceutical costs that could withstand court challenges.

Dean’s efforts have included other strategies to reduce drug costs, including the development of a Preferred Drug List (PDL) and Supplemental Rebates. The results have been remarkable: by including a less expensive brand instead of highly-advertised heartburn medicines, Vermont’s Medicaid expenditure on that category of drugs has been slashed by 43%.

Dean has also pushed through a number of other cost-containment strategies. For instance, Vermont negotiated an agreement with a Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM) to have a transparent contract; he signed a first-in-the-nation bill requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to disclose gifts to physicians and other health care providers; and he has strongly advocated for allowing the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada for personal use. In addition, as founder of Business for Affordable Medicine, a coalition of governors, business and organized labor, Dean has been a leader in advocating the closing of loopholes used by brand name drug manufacturers to prevent or delay lower-priced generic drugs from reaching the market place when patents expired.

"As a doctor, I witnessed first-hand the difficult choice patients often made between food and prescription drugs. As Governor, I knew could not afford to wait for Congress to act on the issue, so I implemented a variety of meaningful cost containment strategies. As President, I will build upon that work as an integral part of my health care agenda for the nation."

Howard Dean applauded the Bush Administration’s reversal resulting in the decision to vote in favor of the current version of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) at the World Health Assembly meeting and urged the Administration to shepherd the treaty through Congress to ensure its speedy ratification.

"We have taken great strides to protect the children of this country from the predatory marketing practices of Big Tobacco. Now that the tobacco industry has apparently shifted its sights overseas to developing economies in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere, it is clear that a strong international approach is warranted. The FCTC reflects the most concrete action the world has ever seen to reduce tobacco consumption, especially among children."

"I just hope that this is not another instance where the Bush Administration’s actions fail to match its rhetoric. Once the treaty is approved by the World Health Organization delegates, I urge President Bush and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson to guide the agreement through Congress to ensure its speedy ratification. We cannot permit this treaty to languish."

Dean was referring to instances where the Bush Administration’s actions have failed to match its rhetoric, such as its failure to adequately fund the "No Child Left Behind Act," its failure to allocate sufficient Homeland Security funds to first responders, and its failure to date to demonstrate the necessary commitment to stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan.

DEAN STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO DLC'S CHARGE THAT PUBLIC SERVANTS ARE "FRINGE ACTIVISTS"

“Once again, the DLC has chosen to put their own political agenda ahead of the progress needed to unite the Democratic Party. This election has barely begun, and the DLC has repeatedly dismissed people who attend caucuses, who get out the vote, and now the 1.3 million members of AFSCME as ‘fringe activists’ who do not reflect ‘the mainstream values, national pride and the economic aspirations of middle-class and working people.’

“The DLC staff can say what they want about me, but they owe an apology to the 1.3 million members of AFSCME. Our teachers, our health care workers, and our state and local public servants don't need a lesson from Washington insiders about the needs and concerns of middle- and working-class families. What they need is a Democratic Party that will stand up for them.”

TAPPED

The American Prospect's blog has this to say about the DLC's attack on Dean:

It's a pretty impressive sign of how desperate the DLC is to derail Dean that it's now accusing him of being too liberal for the party at the same moment that he's smartly co-opting and building on a plan that was developed at the Heritage Foundation, introduced as legislation on numerous occasions by moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats, and that's backed by the current president.

"People are going to suffer if we don't compromise. We have to be practical; we have to compromise," Dean told a Burlington, Vt. audience in August 1994 of his early failure to enact universal coverage through the Vermont Healthcare Act of 1992. Health reform "isn't going to happen overnight," he added. "We have to do it piece by piece . . . and we have to have a bipartisan bill."

DAVENPORT REPORT: AP

Mike Glover from the AP reports on Howard Dean's appearance at the "Hear it From the Heartland Forum" in Davenport with Senator Tom Harkin. Some excerpts:
Sharpening his attacks on President Bush's policies, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean asserted Sunday that the nation will face an economic depression if Bush is re-elected.

Dean cited a statistic that 2.5 million jobs have been lost during Bush's first term in office, laying the blame on Bush's handling of an economy that has remained sluggish.

"Two and half million jobs in two and half years," said Dean. "If we re-elect this president, we'll be in a depression. That's 8 million jobs in eight years."

A job loss of that magnitude would plunge the nation into an economic slowdown far worse that the current recession, Dean argued.

Dean.... argues he has the best chance of defeating Bush because he can draw the sharpest differences with the president.

FINEMAN ON THE DLC MEMO

“I went and read the memo. It’s hysterical. I don't mean funny. I mean, it's hysterical. He calls them everything but a plagiarist, an elitist, an activist. It’s like, it's a compliment to Howard Dean. They're reacting like Howard Dean has already won the nomination.” – Howard Fineman, on the DLC memo attacking Howard Dean, on Hardball, 5/15/03

5/18/2003

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

We experienced technical difficulties with our live webcast of the "Hear it from the Heartland" town hall meeting in Iowa, featuring Howard Dean and hosted by Senator Tom Harkin. We apologize, and thanks to those of you who tried to watch. The Governor's address to supporters will be rescheduled on another day. We'll keep you posted.

WATCH "HEAR IT FROM THE HEARTLAND" ON CSPAN

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties with our volunteer's streaming capabilities to the Dean for America homepage. You can watch the Hear it from the Heartland Forum with Governor Dean now by clicking here.

LIBERAL OASIS INTERVIEW WITH HOWARD DEAN

Popular blogger Liberal Oasis has an exclusive interview with Howard Dean in which the Governor discusses the war in Iraq, his position on the medical use of marijuana, welfare reform, tax cuts, and other topics. An excerpt:

HD: What is unique about this race.... is the fact that we have a president who has governed from farther right than any president in living memory, and I believe the American people are going to respond to the Democratic candidate who can best distinguish him or herself from the policies and ideologies of President Bush.

This is an Administration that appears bent on dividing Americans by race, class, gender and sexual orientation, and our country deserves better.

I intend to run a campaign that will promote a national community, challenge the divisive Republican politics, and offer the American people a vision for the future that includes every one of us.